


Love And Joy Unto You

by frith_in_thorns



Category: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Genre: Christmas, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, May and Jazz really love glitter, Toby really loves coffee, fandomstocking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-17
Updated: 2014-03-17
Packaged: 2018-01-16 01:15:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1326271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frith_in_thorns/pseuds/frith_in_thorns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toby feels she's beginning to lose control of her own house. At least where May and Christmas parties are concerned. (Set between <i>Ashes of Honor</i> and <i>Chimes at Midnight</i>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love And Joy Unto You

**Author's Note:**

> Written for fandomstocking.

Toby stopped one pace inside her front door, horror already sweeping over her. " _What_ is going on?" she asked the hallway, somewhat flatly. It was unoccupied, but certainly not empty.

May bounced out of the living room. She was wearing a massive pair of glittery antlers — they were impressive enough to register first despite the quantity of gold tinsel she was wearing around her neck and waist. "We've been decorating!" she said, brightly.

"Why?" Toby demanded. She dropped her shopping bag next to the doormat.

"Because it's Christmas!" Jazz yelled from the living room.

May beamed. "We thought you must have forgotten. So we did it all as a surprise for you!" Her smile didn't even falter under Toby's glare. There was _no way_ that she hadn't been anticipating what Toby's reaction would be.

"There are bits of tree all over my walls," Toby said. It looked like some sort of greenery bomb had detonated in the hallway, studding all the exposed surfaces with leafy shrapnel.

"Yep! Holly and mistletoe." 

Toby looked up at the generous bunches of mistletoe she could see. "Have you put one of those in _every_ doorway?"

"Possibly," May said, with an utter lack of repentance. "Wait til you see the living room, though!"

"Oh, Oberon's ears," Toby groaned. She followed May resignedly, telling herself it probably wouldn't be as bad as all that. She had only been gone for a few hours, after all. How much decorating could a Fetch and a Ravenmaid really manage in that time?

Quite a lot, it turned out. Toby stopped just inside the living room doorway and briefly closed her eyes, in the hope that it would make everything go away.

It didn't.

Glittery garlands were hanging from the ceiling, and fake snow was ground into the carpet underfoot. In one corner was six feet of pure sparkle, the shape of it suggesting a tree somewhere underneath. Yet _more_ holly had been wedged behind every picture frame on the wall, many of the sprigs spray-painted gold. The overall effect was that of being trapped inside an incredibly glittery snowglobe.

It was also clear that May and Jazz hadn't been working alone. Raj was sprawled across a sofa, his knees hooked over the back, while Quentin was perched on one of the arms. He was dangling a bauble from a length of ribbon; Raj was lazily batting at it with one hand.

"This," Toby said, "is _my_ house."

Raj wriggled so that he could drop his head off the side of the sofa and give her an upside-down grin. "May thought it'd be fun," he said.

"May's evicted," Toby said. "And disowned. Jazz, you can take her."

Jazz giggled. She was putting the finishing touches on what Toby assumed was a gingerbread house. She'd never encountered _pink_ gingerbread before, though. "May, your antlers have stopped. Come here."

"What," Toby said, again, as May bent her head obediently. Jazz pressed a spot in the centre of May's hideous antlers and suddenly they were emanating a horrendously tinny Christmas tune.

"That's better," May said, cheerfully. "I keep not noticing."

" _How?_ " Toby demanded, incredulously. She was beginning to feel that no one was paying any attention to her dismay. 

"Don't you like it?" Quentin asked. His face fell, sending a stab of guilt through her. "We thought it would be nice…"

Toby looked at him helplessly, and tried to persuade her brain to come up with something she could say that would be both reassuring and not blatantly untrue. Fortunately, she was saved the effort as Quentin's sad expression twitched, and then cracked into laughter.

"That isn't funny!" Toby protested, over the sounds of everyone else failing to share her opinion. "As my squire, you're supposed to _respect_ me. Fake guilt-tripping does _not_ fall under that umbrella."

"As my knight you're supposed to make sure I'm fully familiar with all cultural traditions," Quentin said, without a trace of apology. He dangled the bauble in front of Raj's face again, bouncing it off his nose. "You were being remiss in my education."

"This is not a cultural tradition," Toby protested. " _No_ tradition involves this much glitter."

"I rather like it," Tybalt's voice purred from just behind her ear, and she reflexively jumped before spinning round.

"Are you in on this?" she accused.

Tybalt had been lurking close behind her, but when he caught sight of her face he retreated a step backwards. "No," he said, hastily. "I had nothing to do with it."

"He got us the tree," Raj said, still upside down.

Tybalt attempted to look innocent. "I didn't know it would be made so… sparkly."

"I blame _all_ of you," Toby said, darkly. "I'm going to remember this."

"Tobes, you just need to try getting into the seasonal spirit," May advised. 

"I'm more concerned with getting _out_ of it," Toby retorted. "Not to mention getting it out of my carpet."

"Hey," Jazz said. She nudged May. "They're under the mistletoe."

"Oh, yes!" May agreed, gleefully. "You two, kiss."

Tybalt smirked. "Surely you're in favour of this tradition, at least."

Toby scowled, and crossed her arms. "No. No kisses for you."

"What, really?" Quentin asked, sounding innocently baffled. 

"Shut up."

"I mean, you never _stop_ kissing him these days."

"Shut. Up."

Tybalt smirked at her again, and then looked further into the room and raised an eyebrow. "Nephew. What in Titania's name are you doing?"

"Nothing," Raj said, as Quentin flicked the bauble at him again. He twisted his head, and solved the problem of how to extract himself from his position by changing into cat-shape as he flipped to the floor. Unfazed, Quentin shook the ribbon again and jerked it back as Raj pounced.

Toby groaned, and briefly hid her head in her hands. "I can't be in this house. My eyes hurt."

"There are _presents_ ," May said, with the air of someone playing an irrefutable card. There was, indeed, a pile of them under the tree. The general… shininess… of the room had prevented Toby from so far noticing them. "Quentin brought the ones from Sylvester. And Dianda sent you something that's quite heavy. And spiky."

"Presents aren't until later," Jazz interrupted to protest. She had moved to the table, and had picked up in the middle of icing a seemingly inexhaustible supply of spiced sugar cookies. "May. Antlers."

May ducked her head obediently, and Jazz started another stream of painfully mangled music, placing a kiss on May's nose to finish.

"Toby, you can't go," Quentin protested. Raj mewed pitifully and twined around Toby's ankles.

"I've got to visit the Luidaeg," Toby said. "It's important. I only just remembered."

Fortunately, before everyone could start to protest, the doorbell rang. 

"I'll get it," Toby offered, quickly, and all but bolted down the hall.

The Luidaeg was on the front step, her mouth widening in a sharkish grin as she registered the expression on Toby's face. She had a canvas bag slung over her shoulder, from which several wine bottle necks poked out. They were each decorated by a seashell on a ribbon. 

"You are _kidding_ me," Toby groaned.

"Your squire invited me to your Christmas party," the Luidaeg said. 

"I'm not having a party," Toby protested.

"You should be honoured," the Luidaeg said. "I don't come to just _any_ party, you know. Bad for my image." She shouldered her way inside, past a speechless Toby. "Wow, I really like what you've done with the place." She looked back and smirked.

Defeated, Toby let the door close. "I hate Christmas," she muttered, as she trailed back to what was _definitely not_ a party. 

Not that what _she_ wanted seemed to be making any difference at all.

~

Quentin was drifting towards the edge of the gathering; Toby found him at the window, playing with the glass in his hand. "You okay?" she asked him, quietly. 

"I wish it would snow," he said.

Toby snorted. "Fat chance of that here. You'll have to make do with glitter." Then she reconsidered her reaction. "You miss it?"

He nodded. "There was always snow back home. We make a big deal of Yule where I grew up, not like most of the Fae here. I know there are parties and stuff, but you don't take it _seriously_."

There was, of course, no way Toby could really ask any questions — even if she wasn't actually trying to find out information which could be used to track his parents down it still went against the spirit of blind fostering. Still, she didn't want to say _nothing_ : "Santa's elves aren't Daoine Sidhe, are they?"

Quentin choked on a sip of his mulled cider. For a moment Toby was worried that she had just killed her squire, but fortunately he recovered.

"Also, don't let May hear you accuse her of not taking Christmas seriously," Toby advised, and set him off again into wheezy giggles.

"Haven't you learnt how to breathe yet, kid? Surely you're old enough for _that_." The Luidaeg had slid in to lean against the wall beside Quentin, as if she had always been there. In deference to the festive atmosphere she was wearing a long green skirt to go with one of her usual flannel shirts.

"He's homesick," Toby said. She wouldn't have told that to anyone else, to preserve Quentin's dignity, but the Luidaeg was different.

"I don't want to _go_ home," Quentin hastened to add. 

The Luidaeg ruffled his hair affectionately. "Relax. No one's kicking you out." She gave Toby a quick glance, and then looked back to him. "Your parents are doing well, I hear."

Both Toby and Quentin took startled breaths. "You know who they are?" Quentin demanded.

The Luidaeg rolled her eyes. "Of _course_ I do. Was that a serious question?" She managed to make the motion of pushing herself away from the wall into a sort of disdainful whole-body shrug. "You can rabbit on about them to me sometime if you like," she said, diffidently, and headed off towards the cookies.

Quentin beamed after her.

Across the room, Jazz clapped her hands for silence. "Presents now!" she called.

~

Sylvester's Christmas gift was a beautifully-embroidered scabbard. "Do you think he's trying to tell me something?" Toby asked, gloomily.

Quentin snickered, unsuccessfully attempting to disguise it as a cough.

"At least your liege is more diplomatic than you are," Tybalt murmured. 

Toby didn't need to look behind her to get his stomach with a jab of her elbow. An indignant huff of breath let her know that her aim had been correct.

"At least we're not making the same mistake as last year with your presents," May said. She had claimed a sofa, with Jazz sprawled half on top of her.

"What was wrong with last year?" Toby asked. 

Tybalt gave a low chuckle. "Everyone got you coffee."

"My question stands," Toby said. "What was wrong with that?"

There was a long moment where no one seemed to be able to meet anyone else's eyes. "Well, it's not very interesting," the Luidaeg said, taking Toby's usual role of the person in the room with the least tact.

"But I _like_ that about it!" Toby protested. Coffee was good. For one thing, it was unlikely to get her killed. As a matter of fact, she had rather been looking forward to getting gifted distinctly non-interesting coffee once again.

There was some awkward throat-clearing.

"You mean _no one_ got me coffee?" Toby asked, a little plaintively.

"I did!" Raj said, gleefully. 

"Excellent," Toby said, and caught the wrapped gift as he tossed it to her. "You can live."

Raj grinned. "See, May, I _told_ you."

"Traitor," May muttered, darkly.


End file.
